The Latino community in the US strongly favors Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore. The latest poll of my company, Hispanic Trends, shows a 61% Latin support to Gore while only 25% to Republican candidate George Bush. Bush has tried to attract the Hispanic vote more than Gore: in fact, he launched the best presidential campaign in the US political history to gain the Latino vote since they are truly important in states like California, Texas, New York, Florida –the country’s biggest. However, the Latin historical support for Democrats has not changed.

During the ‘90s, the Republican party made a great effort for the new immigrants to return to their countries. In Congress they passed laws banning access to public services and social plans to immigrants, residents and non-citizens. Making use of a highly racist and violent rhetoric, California governor Pete Wilson blamed new immigrants in California for all the problems hitting the state. I believe that the Hispanic voters in the US, above all new immigrants, have not forgiven the GOP for this sort of attitude, action and rhetoric and George Bush is paying the price. Bush is liked by some Hispanics and he has managed to convince many that he is not just one more Republican. However, Latinos are not ready yet to vote for a party that hit so hard in the past decade.

Latin America still lacks enough weight on the electoral campaign though it is slightly more relevant than in previous elections. I believe this must be quite disappointing for many of us who hoped for this to be the beginning of Latin American relevance for the US economic future.

Personally, Jorge Ramos, host of news program Univision, is the leading figure. According to my company’s polls he ranks third but the first two –actor Edward James Olmos and former Secretary of Housing Henry Cisneros- fail to have a truly active role in this campaign. Jorge Ramos is on TV every day, writes newspaper columns, appears on Spanish radio in the US so I think he has become, interestingly enough, the politically major Hispanic in the US though he still is a Mexican citizen. Within the political entourage, Henry Cisneros (Democratic Party) is not actively involved but prevails in a major position. On the Republican side, Cuban-American Congressman Lincoln Díaz-Balart, Miami, holds the biggest popularity and power.

For Latino voters the issue of greatest concern is immigration. A great deal of people in this country would like to have the right legal framework enabling them to bring relatives in. From the international policy perspective, the Colombian situation is the greatest concern along with democracy problems in Latin American in general and particularly in Peru, Ecuador and to a certain extent Argentina.

As regards the White House and the State Department, their biggest concern is democracy. I believe the US greatly fears to live again like in the ‘70s and ‘80s, the return of military rule in Latin America. The situation in Peru greatly worries the White House as well as the problems in Colombia and the instability of Ecuador and Bolivia. However, this issue has been circumvented in the presidential campaign.

*Iterview in FM Nueva Mayoría. Sergio Bendixen journalist, political analyst and chairman of Hispanic Trends.